Let's Fix This
by PlatformNineAndThreeQuarters
Summary: 'Sometimes the simplest solutions are the most effective.' An effort to fix the Shinobi world by Uchiha Naomi. Self Insert.
1. 1

Itachi didn't know what to expect when Shisui asked him to check-up on his five year old sister when he left for his mission. He knew Shisui was an orphan as of a year ago. Had he really left his little sister alone for a month? He wondered if he would ever become this negligent with Sasuke. He hoped not.

He knocked on the door of Shisui's house twice. Receiving no answer he ventured into the backyard. There he saw a tiny girl practicing katas against a wooden post. Itachi had seen many people practice katas before, but never like her. Her movements were sharp and precise, and there was force and determination in each strike that did nothing to diminish the fluidity and grace. But it was her expression that struck him the most. The stubborn set of jaw and the fire in the eyes were not something he'd expect from a five year old.

"Who're you?" She finally noticed him. She looked quite a bit like Shisui, only with half the height, longer hair and a scowl on the face.

He bowed to her and introduced himself. "I am Uchiha Itachi, Naomi-san. Shisui asked me to take care of you while he was away."

Her scowl deepened. "You're a kid yourself. How are you supposed to take care of me?"

He wasn't considered a kid anymore. He was the heir of Uchiha clan. The prodigy who is supposed to bring glory to the clan and fulfil the impossible expectations of the elders and his father. He did not have a heart to tell her that though.

"I am going to graduate from the academy soon." That would make him a Ninja, a legal adult, at seven years of age.

"They teach you how to take care of kids at the academy?" She raised an eyebrow.

"I have experience taking care of my younger brother."

"Do I look like a one year old child to you, Itachi-Chan?"

He closed his mouth before he could dig himself further into the hole. Changing the subject would be best. "Would you like to spar with me, Naomi-san?"

She narrowed her eyes, indicating she had seen through his ploy, but nodded jerkily. They briefly put up the seal of friendly spar and launched at each other. What followed was exhilarating. Each of his strike was met meet equal speed and force. It seemed they could almost read each other's minds as they sparred in way that would almost seem like dancing to an outsider. She was able to match him perfectly. For the first time in his life, Itachi was having fun while sparring, with a grin on his face as big as Naomi's. But all good things come to an end. Both of them leapt back, taking note of the fatigue in their muscles. They stared at each other looking into matching newly awakened Sharingan.

* * *

"So, what did you do with Naomi these last weeks?" Shisui asked popping down next to him.

"We sparred. She's good." Itachi decided to tell him about their Sharingan awakenings only when they were away from prying ears of the clan. He didn't want Naomi to be treated like another prodigy to be sent for early graduation.

"Yeah. She is too hard on herself while training, though." her brother said.

"What goal is she working towards?"

Shisui held a long suffering sigh. " She wants to conquer Kumo."

Itachi tried to digest that. "Why?" He asked after a minute of silence.

"Well, you know tou-chan died of heart block, right? And Kamiwari now kuni is known for medicines to treat that. We couldn't get those because of the war. Now she's angry that tou-chan could be alive and he isn't. She's trying to lash out." He sighed. "She used to be such a happy kid before that, you know."

The next day Itachi sought out Naomi while she was training.

"Shisui told me you wish to conquer Kumo." He said.

She turned sharply towards him, halting her kata. "You think I can't do it?"

"You could, but why do you want to? There would be long war and lots of deaths because of it."

"There's always war."

"There doesn't have to be." he said softly.

"What do you mean?" She looked confused.

Itachi had never revealed his dream to anyone, but felt it was the right thing to do at the moment. "I wish to stop all wars. That is my dream, to become Hokage and bring peace to the Elemental Nations."

He waited for her to scoff and ridicule his dream. She studied him for a long time as if this was the first time she was truly seeing him.

"You have to be good at diplomacy and making friends to do that. I can easily say that you are crap at it." she proclaimed.

This was not the reaction Itachi had expected. He frowned at her.

"From what I've seen, you are not very good at it either." he shot back childishly.

"Oh! I'm plenty good at making friends. I just find you annoying."

Itachi took a deep breath and refrained from sticking his tongue out at her. "Why do you find me annoying."

"Because you look down on me."

"I don't.."

"You do. You're only a year older than me and you just pop up claiming to take care of me, even when nii-san just told you to check up on me. It's like you think everyone else is inferior to you or something. It's not your fault really, you've been told all your life how brilliant you you are, that you are a prodigy. Well, guess what, no matter how brilliant you are there would always be someone who is better than you at something. You're not some kami-chosen messiah who has come to give salvation to us lesser beings. You're just a kid."

Itachi stood stunned followed her tirade. He mentally recalled his behavior with his classmates and Naomi, and winced.

"You're right. I've been acting condenscendingly towards you. I don't have any excuse. Please forgive me." He bowed at ninety degrees, showing his shame.

"I don't really like these formalities, so... Just stand up, allright?" Naomi replied, sounding flustered. "And don't worry about learning diplomacy for after you make Hokage. You can make me your chief diplomat, I'll take care of everything."

Itachi straightened up. "I don't know. I wouldn't want to start the fourth shinobi war."

Naomi snorted. " So, you do have a sense of humor, somewhere deep, deep, deep down. Good to know. As your friend, I have the responsibility of preventing it from dieing a premature death."

Itachi didn't know when during their conversation he had made friends with Naomi. He didn't mind though.

* * *

Itachi heard Naomi's voice as he went down the stairs from his room.

"... saw him sneaking away from the Hyuuga compound with a sack over his shoulder. He looked like a thief and the Uchiha are police, right? So, I tried to stop him, I didn't know he was a Ninja. He dropped the sack and defended against me. He was really fast, and then my sharingan activated. I could see him clearly and the muscles around his nose were twitching. I gathered he must have a sensitive nose so I blew up the chilly powder pack I had bought just before. He was twitching on the ground till the ANBU arrived to take him." She giggled.

Itachi entered the room to find father and mother listening intently to Naomi and Sasuke on mother's lap.

"Then I opened up the bag, and there was a cute little girl inside. She was terrified but she was like really really cute with that hime cut hairstyle... "

Father cleared his throat.

"Right. So, I was comforting her, when Hiashi-sama arrived, byakugan blazing. I explained to him what happened. He then thanked me and said that the Hyuuga clan owed me a favor. He looked really pained though saying that, as though the stick up his arse was actually hurting him."

"Arse." Sasuke chimed up. "Arse."

Naomi gained a pained expression. " I swear Fugaku-sama, he does this on purpose to get me in trouble."

Father held a long suffering sigh. "Naomi, just... Just go." He swallowed. "Good work."

Itachi tried not to think about how the hypothetical stick in his father's ass must be hurting him right now, as he complimented Naomi. Something must have shown on his expression, as Naomi winked at him and grinned as she passed. "Bye, Itachi-chan."

He schooled his expression and asked his father, "Someone tried to kidnap the Hyuuga heiress?"

"Hn. The Kumo diplomat."

Itachi couldn't contain his snort at Naomi beating down a Kumo Ninja, her self proclaimed enemy since she was four.

His parents looked at him with scandalized expressions. "You're spending way too much time with her." His father declared.


	2. 2

Itachi was at loss at what to do to dissuade his clan members from their foolish plans of coup. But he was only thirteen, despite being ANBU and clan heir, he wouldn't be able to change their minds. His less than stellar social skills didn't help either. Shisui was his only hope.

"Almost all of them are on board the plan. Mentioning anything would lead to suspicion." And that hope was dashed as well.

Something must have shown on his face as Shisui put his hand on Itachi's shoulder. "Don't worry, Itachi. We'll think of something."

He was about reply when a familiar figure emerged from the edge of clearing. " Oi, Itachi-chan, the brat was looking for you. Hi, nii-chan."

"Nii-san." Itachi braced himself as Sasuke jumped off Naomi's back and hug/tackled him. His lips quirked in amusement. Despite mellowing out towards Sasuke over the years, Naomi still called him brat. This was the first time Sasuke didn't protest the nickname.

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke asked, bouncing on his feet.

"We were just discussing which of us is stronger." Shisui contributed.

"What's their to discuss? Of course Itachi nii-san is stronger." said Sasuke, ever faithful to his brother.

"What do you mean by 'of course' brat? Are you eager to get tickled again?" Naomi wiggled her fingers threateningly.

Sasuke, apparently terrified of the tickle monster, gasped and ran away.

"Stop terrorizing him, imouto." Shisui said, ruffling Naomi's hair and took off after Sasuke. Naomi huffed and turned to Itachi.

"So, what were you talking about ?"

"Classified." was the simple reply.

"So, now that both nii-chan and you are ANBU, you're going to use that excuse for everything, aren't you ?"

"Well, it's a convinient excuse, genin-chan." Itachi couldn't help but tease. Not that he doubted Naomi's skill. Despite being known as the clan's prodigy, he could say Naomi was smarter than him. Her combat skills while not comparable to him or Shisui were more than necessary for a chunnin. She had failed the chunnin exams on purpose twice now with such finesse that an entire village of ninjas didn't suspect anything. But what impressed Itachi the most was her way of thinking. He was able to learn anything on his first try, but Naomi was able to discover new things without putting much effort.

"Looks like you've got a big head, Itachi-chan. You're in a need of thorough ass kicking." Naomi replied, her eyes narrowing.

"You can certainly try, genin-chan." Itachi watched as Naomi's eyes reduce to slits. She very much resembled the cat summons of the clan at that moment. Despite having confidence in his skills, Itachi felt a shiver run down his spine.

He was saved by Sasuke's shout of," Nii-san, come quickly."

Naomi scowled as he quietly started towards the clan compound. "You should stop coddling him, you know. He is going to grow up spoilt and pampered."

Itachi feeling a dare devil for some reason, decided to try his luck a little further and asked, "Like you?" and shunshined away before she could reply.

"You're dead, Itachi." He heard Naomi's enraged shout from the clearing.

* * *

Itachi wanted to bang his head against the wall. He had just informed the clan about the increased village security to deter them from launching their rebellion. Instead of withdrawing, they were planning more aggressive maneuvers.

"Itachi-kun, you must get us those new security plans quickly. You are an ANBU, it shouldn't be too difficult for you to get your hands on them." One of the elders, Uchiha Kenji, demanded.

"Were you dropped on your head as child, Kenji-san or this mental retardation is a result of later life choices?" Itachi almost groaned aloud at hearing Naomi's voice, but years of conditioning prevented him from from doing so.

All eyes turned towards the shadowy corner housing twelve year old Naomi Uchiha. Itachi's father was the first to express his disproval. "You are not supposed to be here, Naomi. This meeting is for chunnin and above members of the clan."

"Maybe chunnin should learn to be more discreet then. Even a lowly genin like me was able to deduce the plot of coup from their gossip." she replied. " And a chunnin should know that village security has been increased in response to the whispers of the same coup and in that case Itachi wouldn't be able to get anywhere near the plans. "

There was silence following the proclamation." What do you mean by whispers of the coup? "

" You haven't heard? There rumors all over the village about the Uchiha usurping the village. Danzo's work if I had to guess. He was behind the ones about the Uzumaki kid."

Uchiha Kenji was able to gather his wits by then." This is the reason the coup is necessary. The village council, even the Hokage are all prejudiced against us due to Tobirama's teachings. We have to grab the power for us, ourselves."

"Wow, you're seriously dumb aren't you?" Naomi spoke, as usual, without filter. " You don't realize you're doing all their work for them. I agree they are prejudiced against the Uchiha, but they can't do anything about it since we are a founding clan, the only one since the Senju are all but gone. But you are giving them a reason to eliminate us, on a silver platter. They can easily do that. They have twenty times the Ninja as compared to the clan. No matter how much you talk about the superiority of Sharingan, even you know we can't realistically win. Is that the reason for this coup? To commit mass suicide as traitors? "

" What do you suggest them, Naomi? We should continue to tolerate oppression and discrimination from the the very village we founded? " Father asked.

" Organizing a coup isn't the only way to fight against that. We need allies in the village. Hiashi-sama told me that the Hyuuga clan owed me a favor for saving their heiress from abduction. We can easily use that to negotiate an alliance with them. The Nara, Yamanaka and Akimichi can be brought in through trade agreements, so can the Aburame. Having allies in the clan council could help you to counter the polices of Hokage council and to present grieviences."

If the Uchiha were able to be struck dumb, that would be the expression of every Uchiha in the Naka shrine. The solution presented by Naomi was so simple, yet no one in the clan had thought of it. The Uchiha had always been isolationist and the sentiment was reinforced by segregating them in the police force and later the clan compound. This isolation is what would have led the Uchiha to their doom... If not for Naomi.

Not everyone was satisfied, though. Some of the more arrogant and bloodthirsty members of the clan still wanted the village to pay. But having an alternate solution at hand, father was able to end the coup plans. Itachi would finally be able to give good news to the Hokage.

* * *

Itachi dived towards the left to avoid the katana swipe aiming for his neck, dispelled the triple layered genjutsu trying to snare him, kicked his opponent in the stomach and pined her against the ground, with a kunai at her neck.

Big, wide eyes with three tomoe Sharingan locked on to his. Her face was flushed from exhaustion, beads of sweat clinging to her forehead. She had sharp cheekbones, having lost most of the baby fat in last few years. Her full lips were set in a pout due to her loss. She was breathtakingly beautiful.

"Marry me?" He blurted out before he could stop himself. He forced himself to not retract his words now that they were spoken. He had realised some time ago that he was in love with Naomi, possibly form the day he met her. He was scared to act on it, though. Naomi was his best friend, despite their vastly different personalities. He did not want to estrange her if she didn't return his feelings. But now the cat was out of the bag.

"What?" Naomi's previous frustration was replaced by surprise, a faint blush dusting her cheeks.

Itachi lost his nerve and backtracked. "My father is pushing me to find a bride and the fan girls are getting quite creative." He said with a straight face. It wasn't technically a lie.

Her expression turned to incrediuality. "You want to marry me because your fangirls are getting creative?" He didn't need to see her Sharingan to know that he was entering dangerous territory.

"Also because I cannot imagine spending my life with anyone but you." he said sincerely. It must have been the right thing to say as she deactivated her Sharingan. She studied him for quite some time before she replying. "I guess I could marry you, on one condition."

"What would that be?" He asked, trying and failing to stop his hopes from rising. She flipped him on his back and pressed a Kunai to his jugular. "You'll have to admit defeat to the great Naomi-sama."

"I admit defeat to the great Naomi-sama." He easily said, unable and suppress the grin that crept up his face.

She huffed, removing the kunai from his neck. "You're no fun." she proclaimed, with a smile in her voice.

Now he just had to convince Shisui to not kill him.


	3. 3

_Grace felt the explosion push her back. She mentally took account of the burns she received and concluded she wouldn't survive this. To her surprise she didn't feel any despair. She was content with her life. The last few years in med school and as a surgical resident after that had been the best years of her life. She was saving lives and she was good at it. Her current predicament could also be attributed to her saving people thing. She has refused to remove pressure from the bleeding abdominal wound of the patient despite an unknown explosive inside his abdominal cavity. She didn't have any regrets, except maybe she'd miss terrorizing her interns. With that thought Dr. Grace Murphy died at the age of 28._

Naomi woke up with a gasp and bleeding eyes, dimly aware of her surroundings. She took in slow deep breaths to avoid hyperventilation. She was Uchiha Naomi, 17 year old chunnin of Konoha. She was in the forests of Kamiwari no kuni with Jiraiya on a training trip. She was safe.

It took her several minutes for her to calm down and another few to make a sense of what happened. She had died and was reborn into a world she previously considered fictional. She has somehow regained the memories of her previous life on her seventeenth birthday. She heard a rustle in the trees.

"Back from peeping, ero-sensei?" She called out.

"It's research, brat." came the automatic reply. " And what are you doing up so early?"

"Really, sensei? You forgot my birthday? You wouldn't have got me anything then?" She mock pouted.

"Calm down, girlie. I have the perfect birthday gift for you." he said handing me a scroll. She opened it to find a certificate proclaiming her a seal master.

"You're not serious, are you? It has only been a year." She gaped at him.

"I'm completely serious." He answered before scowling. " This is the reason I don't like teaching you genius types. You take all the fun out of it."

"Like the Yondaime wasn't a genius." She shot back.

"Who said I liked teaching him. Damn sensei for saddling me with him and now you. Anyway, it's time to return back to Konoha. I can pay him back by using his crystle ball to peek, I mean research."

Naomi just shook her head.

* * *

The chibis managed to pass, Shisui repeated to himself, possibly the hundredth time. He still couldn't believe it. When the Hokage assigned him a genin team, he naturally went to Kakashi-senpai as he held the record of the most number of genin teams failed. What he got from him was a masterpiece of psychological warfare created to fail unsuspecting genin- the bell test. And the Hokage couldn't even fault him for using it as he had himself used it for the sannin.

Meeting his potential genin, he was sure that they would fail the test. But somehow, using the luck of kami, they had actuality managed to pass the second test of teamwork. And now Shisui was the jonin sensei of his brat of a cousin, the kyuubi jinchiruchi and a pink haired civilian girl. He was so screwed.

It was due to these distracting thoughts that he didn't notice anything unusual as he entered his house. Not until he was pinned against the wall with a kunai to his neck.

"Ne, nii-chan, you're getting sloppy in your old age." said sorely missed, familiar voice.

"Hey, I was distracted." Shisui replied. The kunai was removed and he turned around to see the grinning face of his imouto.

" 'You can never be distracted when you're a shinobi, imouto. The distracted shinobi is a dead shinobi.'" she said, trying to mimic his voice.

" Still a brat, I see. How did your training go?"

"It went well, considering how easily I got a drop on you."

Shisui had missed his sister. The bantering, the sparring, good food, a happy Itachi, it felt like all the good things in his life had left with Naomi.

"Atleast Itachi will stop brooding, now that you're back." he commented.

"Brooding?"

"That's all he's been doing since you left - training, missions and brooding. If I'd known he was so hopelessly in love with you, I probably wouldn't have tried to kill him when he asked you to marry him."

" 'Tried' being the key word. And he's not in love with me. He asked me to marry him because he I'm the only female his age that isn't his fangirl."

Shisui couldn't contain his snort in response to that." You know, for such a smart person, you can be really dumb sometimes. He should be training in the HC section of Forest of Death, if you wish to see him. " he offered, casually.

Naomi narrowed her eyes. " I'll do that. You should prepare a training schedule for your team. Congratulations, by the way, Shisui sensei. " She said, while grinning cheerfully, before shunshining away.

Damn. How did she...?

Oh. Sometimes he forgot shinobi gossip worse than fish wives.

* * *

The HC section was technically restricted access area due to high death count, but being Jiraiya's student had its perks. Soon enough Naomi was moving through the forest, trailing the obvious path of destruction. What surprised her was that there were no signs of fire jutsu or shuriken jutsu, two of Itachi's most favored techniques.

After about an hour of searching, she came across Itachi fighting against a horde of giant spiders, without his shirt, his hair longer than than she'd ever seen and most importantly, blindfolded. She watched in awe as he quickly, gracefully dispatched the spider army with nothing except Tai jutsu. He removed his blindfold when he was done and looked in her direction. She leapt off the tree to land in front of him. He smiled and and greeted her. "Naomi, okaeri."

She smiled back. It was true, coming to him felt like coming home. " Tadaima. You've changed a lot." No, she was definitely not looking at those abs.

"So have you." he said.

"Yes, you could say that." She activated her recently acquired Mangekyou Sharingan. A slight widening of eyes was his only response. As he was looking directly at her eyes, it wasn't difficult to pull him into Tsukiyomi. He didn't resist.

He looked curiously around in the dichromatic worlds of Tsukiyomi. "Genjutsu?" he asked.

Naomi tried not to smile at the irony of him being trapped in a Tsukiyomi. "Hai. It has a time dilation effect. I wanted to talk to you privately."

He nodded and sat down crossing his legs. "How did you get those?" he said, indicating her Mangekyou.

"I saw you and nii-chan die. I felt myself die too. I don't know which of those activated these." She shrugged.

"Time travel?" He questioned, a small frown appearing on his face.

That made her let out a small laugh. "No, what I'm about to tell you, is even more ridiculous than time travel."

"I'll try to keep an open mind."

"I remembered my previous life on my seventeenth birthday." He nodded at her continue. "It wasn't anywhere in the Elemental Nations, but in a different world. People couldn't use chakra and technology was very advanced compared to here." She paused giving him time to think on that. "There was an anime in that world, called 'Naruto'. It told told the story of Uzumaki Naruto and the event leading up to the 4th shinobi war. I think it would be better to show you." With that she plunged the world of Tsukiyomi in memories of her watching Naruto. She had debated with herself is she wanted to tell Itachi about his role in the Uchiha massacre and decides for it. It was a major event and Itachi would spot that much editing in a second.

Hours passed. Itachi didn't speak at all, viewing with utmost concentration. The world went dichromatic again after they viewed Naruto's inauguration as a the Nanadaime.

Itachi didn't say anything for a long while.

"Things have already changed. Orochimaru might still be with Akatsuki. There might be no Sand-Sound invasion or there might be one backed by the Akatsuki. We have to prepare for all possibilities."

"That's true." She agreed. They could only depend on this knowledge as possibilities not as a determined future. Itachi rubbed his forehead as if relieving a headache.

"Are you allright?" She winced as she said that. Of course he wasn't all right. He just saw himself murdering his own clan, torturing his little brother and getting killed by the said brother. "Uh, never mind. Stupid question."

"I'll be fine." He said with a small smile. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too." She told him, leaning her head against his shoulder. "Why are you training so hard?"

He contemplated for a few seconds before saying, "You can't tell anyone, not even Shisui." She nodded in agreement. He continued. "Sandaime-sama has nominated me as his successor. The daimiyo agreed. It's going to be announced at the chunnin exam finals."

Naomi would forever deny the squeal of delight that escaped her as she hugged him.


	4. 4

Naruto decided he liked his team. Even though Sasuke looked down on him, Sakura-chan hit him and sensei was determined to train them to death, they all saw him. They didn't ignore him or see him as the Kyubbi. Even though Shisui sensei clearly hadn't wanted a team, he was never reluctant to answer their questions or correct their mistakes, which Naruto came to realize were many.

When sensei found out that he couldn't read or write properly, he didn't mock him, but offered to teach him.

That was the reason Naruto was sitting in sensei's house, working on kanji, when a pretty dark haired girl entered, looking diaheveled with messed up hair and dirt and grass stains on her clothes.

"What happened to you?" Sensei asked.

"Itachi." she grunted.

"Nope. I don't want to know. Why don't you help Naruto-kun with his kanji? I'll make dinner" Shisui sensei practically fled from the room. Naruto had a feeling that he was thinking of something perverted.

The pretty girl sat down across Naruto and introduced herself. " Hello, Naruto-kun. I'm Naomi, Shisui's amazing little sister."

" I am Uzumaki Naruto and I'm going to be Hokage, dattebayo." he replied.

"So, I've heard. But you'll have to work hard on your Kanji for that, from what I can see. Hokage do a lot of written work. "

He deflated. " But it's so boring. And I have so much else to do. Sensei is making me re do all my academy lessons, and I have to work on my taijutsu and... "

"Ni-chan told me you can create shadow clones. Why don't you use those to learn all those thing at once? And practicing Kanji will help you when you start learning fuinjutsu. It's legacy of Uzumaki clan, isn't it?" she said, casually. "Think about it. I'll go and change." she got up, ruffling his hair.

Naruto sat there completely still for a long time. He had a lot of thinking to do.

The next day, Naruto was still fidgety. He hadn't found anything about the Uzumaki clan in the library, even using his shadow clones. Then jiji tried to give them another babysitting mission.

"No, old man. This is enough. We are Ninja now. We are training hard. Give us a real mission." He shouted.

There was silence for a while, before jiji chuckled. "Very well Naruto-kun. Team 7 is assigned a C rank mission to escort bridge builder Tazuna to wave. Pick up your client at the North gate in two hours."

He couldn't believe it. An actual C rank. He had honestly expected jiji to start lecturing him.

"Hokage-sama, there are rumors of mercenary occupation in Wave." said a voice from the other side of room. Naruto turned to see an older boy that looked like Sasuke teme with longer hair, working on the mission assignment desk. "Naomi has been cooped up in the village too long, working on seals. Perhaps she can go with them, as extra protection."

Jiji puffed on his pipe. "Naomi-chan can go with them, if she wishes to."

"I'll ask her. Team 7, prepare your packs and meet at the north gate in two hours." Sensei dismissed them.

Turns out Naomi nee-chan actually wished to come with them.

"Naruto-kun, Brat, Pinkie." she greeted them as they approached the gate.

Sasuke teme scowled at her.

"Don't call Sasuke-kun that. And I'm not Pinkie." Sakura-chan shrieked.

Naomi nee-chan looked at her. "Oh, the the kitten has claws. And why should I listen to you. From what I've heard you're not much of a kunoichi."

Naruto opened his mouth to defend Sakura-chan when Sensei appeared with the client. " Team 7, imouto, we're leaving."

With that Naruto took his first steps outside the village.

* * *

Sasuke didn't understand what his brother saw in Naomi. She was loud, rude, boisterous and incompetent. She still a chunnin at 17, where as nii-san was a jonin at 14. She managed to get a apprenticeship with Jiraiya only because the Sandaime insisted on it. She left that too after just a year. Most importantly, she insisted on calling him 'brat' . He had given up on trying to dissuade her from that when he was 7. She was the exact opposite of kaa-san, and she was going to the matriarch of the Uchiha clan someday.

Now she was accompanying his team on their first C rank 'for extra protection' on nii-san's insistence. She'll more than likely be a hindrance. Even now as they traveled, she tried to teach the dead last about fuinjutsu. As if he would understand anything.

Suddenly she broke out in a run towards a puddle in the middle of the road. Two ninjas with slashed out Kiri headbands appeared from the puddle. Naomi quickly knocked them out, put them in scrolls, summoned a cat and sent the scrolls with the cat back to Konoha. All this happened in a span one minute.

Then, pretending as if nothing had happened, she went back to the dead last's side and continued her lecture. Shisui just rolled his eyes, apparently used to the antics of his crazy sister.

"It'll be a jonin next. Let me take care of it." he said.

"Sure, nii-chan." came her reply. All the while, Tazuna, Naruto and Sakura looked on dumbfounded.

Turns out Shisui was right. They were attacked Zabuza Momochi two days later. Naomi stayed with them and client while Shisui battled him. He was at a disadvantage. He had to consider collateral damage while Zabuza could steamroll with anything. Soon enough Shisui was trapped in Zabuza's water prison.

Naomi decided to throw kunai at Zabuza in response to that, none of which were on course to hit Zabuza. Sasuke closed his eyes. Really, why had nii-san decided to marry a female Naruto?

"Konoha must be losing its standards, if brats like you can become chunnin. Atleast you're pretty." Zabuza mocked.

"You're so going to regret that." Naomi replied, before disappearing in a yellow flash, appearing next to Zabuza knocking him out with a contact seal, and releasing Shisui.

"Was that Hiraishin?" Shisui asked.

"Yeah. Cool, isn't it? I just finished it last week."

Shisui was about to say something in response to that ridiculous statement when a Kiri hunter nin appeared. "I've been tasked to bring Zabuza's body back to Kiri. Please relinquish it to me if you wish to avoid an international incident."

"Do you take us for fools? Kiri is in middle of a civil war. They don't have hunter nins to spare to track down someone like Zabuza who defected years ago." Naomi scoffed.

The fake hunter nin, seeing is ploy defeated, leaped towards Zabuza only to be intercepted by Shisui. What followed was a short battle ending with Shisui's victory.

Sasuke was forced to reevaluate his opinion of Naomi while she summoned a cat to send to Konoha with another two prisoner scrolls.

* * *

Sakura scrubbed her hands furiously, trying to get the blood off. But it wasn't working. She had blood on her hands. She was a killer. And it was so easy to kill him, the bandit Gato had sent to kidnap Tsunami-san. Her kunai had so easily penetrated his throat and Sakura had watched as he choked to death.

"Sakura." She heard. Great. Now Sasuke's future sister in law was here to make fun of her.

"I know what you're here to say. That I'm a pathetic kunoichi to let killing a bandit affect me so much. I know that. You can go now." Sakura told her, trying desperately not to cry.

She stood there silently for a while but didn't leave.

"I wasn't here to say that, Sakura." she finally said, sitting next to her. "If I said that I'll be the biggest hipocrite in the world. I hate killing. Why do you think I captured our enemies on our way here? But you have the option of not killing only when you are strong."

Sakura wilted at that. "I'm not strong. Not like you or the boys..."

"That's only because you're keeping yourself weak, Sakura. Tell me, why are you on a diet?"

"I'll get fat if I don't diet." She answered.

"Do I look fat to you?"

Sakura stared at Naomi's perfect figure. "No. That means you're on a diet, too."

Naomi snorted at that. " I have never been on a diet, for even a day. I'm a glutton of the highest order. I eat more than triple you eat, everyday."

"But you're not fat." She protested.

" That's because I train my ass off. I saw you earlier in the clearing, you were only putting the minimal effort in your training, while ogling at Sasuke."

Sakura blushed in embarrassment. " I can't train hard with them. I'll get sweaty and dirty, then Sasuke-kun would... "

Naomi interrupted her. " I can't talk about all boys, but if Sasuke is anything like Itachi, he'll love to see you all hot and sweaty."

Sakura's blush rivaled her dress at that moment.

" Oi, get your mind out of the gutter, Pinkie. He hasn't even kissed me yet."

She gasped at that. " What? But aren't you engaged? "

" We are. For more than a year now. What can I say, he's kind of a dork." Naomi replied, grinning.

She couldn't help but giggle at Uchiha Itachi being called a dork.

" Anyway, physical training isn't the only way to get strong. You've got near perfect chakra control. You can train in genjutsu or iryo nin jutsu. "

" Are you an iryo nin? You were helping the villagers earlier...Could you train me? "

" That was civilian medicine I learned before I became a Ninja. I could get started with Anatomy now if you want, the basics are all the same. " Naomi replied.

" Please, sensei. " Sakura stood up and bowed, her eyes hard with determination.


	5. 5

Kakashi ventured to the meeting place where his kohai (possibly future Hokage) had requested him to be. He was only an hour late. He wouldn't admit to anyone but he was a little scared of Itachi.

"Kakashi-senpai." he was greeted by his kohai who already there, as expected.

"Yo. Looking for early recruits for your Hokage gaurd platoon?" He guessed.

Itachi blinked. "No. This is about your Sharingan."

Oh. "You clan still wants it back?"

" Of course, they do. I am not here on their behalf, though. I have been reading old missions reports and I came across one of yours, about a mission in Kiri to rescue your teammate." Kakashi stiffened at that. Itachi continued." I don't wish to open old wounds but I have suspicions that you awakened the next stage of Sharingan then, the Mangekyou Sharingan. It is activated due to guilt and grief of killing someone you care about."

"Why are you telling me this?" Kakashi asked, stiffly.

Itachi visibly you hesitated. " I have come across information about a group of S rank missing nin with the goal to capture and kill jinchiruchi."

Naruto. Kakashi thought.

"Obito-san's branch of the clan has been known to manifest Kamui. It is a technique which can manipulate space. Normally on activating a Mangenkyo, the user is automatically aware of how to use it. You still have to train it to get better results. As of right now your Chakra reserve wouldn't sustain the Mangenkyo Sharingan for more than a minute."

Itachi started walking away, before saying, "I wouldn't even attempt to understand your grief, Kakashi-senpai. But wouldn't it be better to protect their legacy rather than staring at their names all day? "

Kakashi watched Itachi walk away, as his thoughts resembled an inferno. He took several moments to calm himself.

Well back to training it is, he thought. Maybe he should enlist Gai to help him.

Nah, he wasn't that desperate yet.

* * *

Hiruzen Sarutobi stared incredulously at the man he had chosen to be his successor.

"You wish them to become Konoha shinobi? The missing nin from Kiri?" he asked, hoping he had misheard.

"I'll need five days Hokage-sama. I am confident I can change their loyalties. Ibiki-san can interrogate them after that. They'll be an asset to Konoha. Zabuza is a S class swordsman and Haku has a nearly extinct bloodline. It'll be better than to execute them." Itachi replied.

Hiruzen continued to stare at at him, he looked back unflinchingly. He sighed." You have five days. As far as I am concerned, the execution is only delayed. While you are an excellent shinobi, I doubt even you could shift Kiri nins' loyalty to Konoha, strong enough for Ibiki to pass. Dismissed."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

Five days later, Hiruzen was surprised to find Ibiki with reports declaring all four missing nin cleared for duty as Konoha shinobi and a request for Itachi to be transferred to T and I.

" If I didn't know better, I'd swear he could read minds. He completely broke Zabuza in a day, just by talking to him. Somehow he knew his life story and his ideals. He played him like a string, telling him how Konoha is different form Kiri and all that he hated about it. Same with Yuki Haku. He didn't do much with the Demon Brothers but they are loyal to Zabuza. Now all four of them are loyal to Konoha or more importantly, to Itachi." Ibiki said, grudgingly.

Hiruzen signed the forms enlisting the four as Konoha shinobi and rejected Itachi's transfer request.

It was nice to have his faith in his successor reaffirmed.

* * *

Shimura Danzo was the example of perfect shinobi. He was not supposed to show emotions, but at moment he had a strong urge to tear his hair out in frustration. Hiruzen had just announced to the clan council that his chosen successor was Uchiha Itachi and his reign as the Godaime would start following the chunnin exams.

Even the blonde menace was better than an Uchiha. Danzo didn't know how his plans regarding the Uchiha had messed up so badly. He was sure they would not back down from their coup if he continued to oppress them. But then they had to form alliances with every major clan in Konoha and protest their treatment at clan council meetings. Now Konoha is swarmed by Uchiha in almost every department. Even their damned Police Force accepted non-Uchiha now. Young upstarts started moving out of the clan compound into apartments in Konoha proper. They were too intermingled to safely remove now, he had accepted that.

But he would not accept an Uchiha as his Hokage. His time at the administration building had already shown Danzo that he was a radical. The new academy curriculum designed by him was a slap to the memory of Tobirama-sensei. Sarutobi not seeing the insult as it was, easily accepted it. Granted it showed better results, but that wasn't the point. He was spitting in the name of tradition. ( It also resulted in decreased recruitment in his ROOT army.)

He was too strong to attack directly. His fiancée, however, she was still a chunnin, not a particularly talented one at that.

Perhaps it was time to contact Orochimaru. He had wanted a body with a Sharingan, hadn't he? Danzo could easily send her his way.

Yes, it was a perfect plan. Orochimaru would owe him a favor, and Itachi could be blackmailed to not accept the position.


	6. 6

Naomi didn't think much about the courier mission given to her by an ANBU, not until she was halfway to Kei, her destination. It was a standard mission assigned to chunnin. But the ANBU was wearing a Bear mask, and wasn't Bear taller than that?

She didn't have much time to contemplate on it when she felt a spike of chakra behind her. She dodged a wind jutsu that would have taken her head had it connected.

"Ku Ku Ku Ku. Not too shabby are you? Danzo didn't think much of your abilities."

She didn't need to look at him to know who it was. The creepy laughter was enough of an identification. She had to play this very carefully . Naomi was under no delusions that she could defeat the sannin at full power. But she was sure he was going to spend some time testing her, as he did with Sasuke. (It was a no brainer that he was here for her body.) She discreetly activated her Mangekyou and put them underneath a genjutsu to appear as normal sharingan.

She turned to block the kick he was aiming at her. You are in love with Jiraiya. You crave his approval above all else. You wouldn't do anything to disappoint him. She started weaving the genjutsu around him with Kotoamatsukami, as they traded blows. She needed something that wasn't in complete contrast with his mentality. She also didn't mind playing a prank on her perverted sensei.

She started using seals in their spar, when she was sure the genjutsu was in place.

Hook

"Barrier seals? These look like Jiraiya's work."

"Hai, he's my sensei." Naomi replied, as she prayed for him to take the bait.

Line

He abruptly stopped his attack and silently observed her for some time. " At least you're better than the blonde menace." he said grudgingly. "Where is Jiraiya these days?"

"Following every rumor of your tail." She replied, carefully not mentioning that sensei wanted to find him only to defeat him. "He's going to be in Konoha during chunnin exam finals if you want to catch up."

He flinched, minutely, but enough for a the sharingan to notice.

And sinker.

"Ah, so the rumors about you planning to invade Konoha with Suna, during the finals, are true then. Shame." She shook her head. "Sensei was so sure that you would never fall as low as to attack Konoha."

He visibly wilted.

"I wouldn't." he said. "According to Danzo, Sarutobi sensei is already retiring. It's not worth the effort. I'll have to talk to Rasa..." he sighed. "Try not to get killed brat. Jiraiya has lost enough students already."

Naomi vomited into the bushes as soon as he left, as she realised what she had just done.

* * *

Itachi entered his house to find Naomi in the living room, with face pale as ash and hands trembling.

"Naomi, what's wrong?" he was instantly at her side. He had never seen Naomi this shaken. Even when she had shown him the memories of her previous life, she was cool as a cucumber.

"Nii-chan is on a mission. I didn't want to be alone." she mumbled.

"What happened?" he asked putting an arm around her shoulder. He wished he was better at comforting people.

She turned to face him, her eyes were glistening. "I did something horrible." she whispered.

Itachi knew Naomi had had her first kill years ago. He was on a mission during the aftermath. Shisui was the one that comforted her initially. But she had been subdued for months after that, training hard so that she could be strong enough to not kill, but capture. He wondered what could have happened now?

"Orochimaru attacked me. I used Kotoamatsukami against him. I made him believe that he was in love with Jiraiya sensei, and sensei would be disappointed if he hurt me or attacked Konoha. He dropped his plans of invasion."

Itachi didn't know if he should feel incredulous or proud. He decided on confused. "That's a good thing, isn't it? Why are you upset?"

She looked at him sharply. "Don't you get it? I just reprogrammed a human. I changed the way he is supposed to think. I took away his free will." Tears were freely falling down her eyes.

Ah, of course.

"Naomi, he attacked you, didn't he? What do you think he was planning of doing after he defeated you?"

"Possessing my body." she reluctantly replied. "It's not the same, though."

"Isn't it? An opponent of superior skill attacked you and you used every skill in your arsenal to not only survive but also benifit your village. There's nothing wrong with it. And despite what you think you didn't brainwash him. You just made him believe he loved someone. How is that worse than being a sociopath? "

She didn't argue.

" I just wish I didn't have this power. I can just make anyone believe or do anything I want. It's not something to be trusted with anybody." she said.

" Then I'm glad you and Shisui are the only people who have it." He told her.

"Nii-chan has never used it. I did, after I had decided I wouldn't. Itachi, I don't trust myself anymore."

"If it had been anybody else, including Shisui, they would never be this distraught over using it. You are the most honorable person I know Naomi, despite being a shinobi. I trust you." he looked in her eyes pointedly. "I love you." he added, because it was about time he told her.

She looked at him like a deer caught in flashlight.

"Nii-san. Tadaima." Sasuke called from the entrance.

Naomi quickly composed herself. Still, Sasuke knew her well enough to spot something was wrong. "You're all right?" he asked her, almost with concern.

Naomi grinned at him. "I'm fine. I'll be even better if you give me a hug."

Sasuke looked at her as if she was a disgusting bug and walked away towards his room, pointedly ignoring her.

"Itachi-chan, your otouto is mean to me." she said, dramatically.

Itachi pulled her in a hug. "It's all right, Naomi-chan. Somehow, I believe you'll survive."

She's melted into his arms. " I love you too." she whispered softly, lips right next to his ear.

Itachi was sure Sasuke was internally freaking out about how much he was smiling during dinner.

* * *


	7. 7

Naomi growled when Itachi stopped her as she tried to get rid of his shirt.

"What?" she asked, breathing hard, as she removed her mouth from his.

"We're not married." he said, as if that explained everything.

"What does that have to do with anything?" She shrieked. This was the third time Itachi was leaving her all high and dry.

"Don't be crass, Naomi." he said.

Naomi took ten deep breaths, trying to calm herself. "All right, I get where you are coming from. You like to be all traditional, but... But it's not safe, you know?"

"Safe?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. We can't go on missions like this, all aroused and distracted. We could get killed." she tried to nod sagely.

Itachi frowned. "You're right."

"I am?" She didn't expect him to cave so easily.

"Yes. We should stop making out."

Naomi stood there gaping as Itachi left the clearing. " That was not what I meant." she shouted.

Naomi never believed that the seduction lessons from her kunoichi classes would ever be useful for her.

She admitted she was wrong as she used every seductive taijutsu maneuver she had ever learned against her spar with Itachi. He eventually pined her against a tree and brought his lips next to her ear.

"Naomi." he said in a deep throaty voice.

"Yes?" She breathed out, shivering slightly.

"Did you know...?"

"What?"

"ANBU have seduction resistance training." he said, trying to hold in a laugh.

"Baka." she hissed, kicking his legs.

It was the morning of chunnin exam finals, when Naomi entered Itachi's room.

"Let's get married today." she announced.

Itachi blinked. "Today?"

"Yeah. Today is a good day. You're becoming Hokage today, team 7 will make chunnin, we avoided an invasion that was supposed to happen today. So, yeah, today." Naomi babbled, trying to hide her nervousness.

"It takes a lot of preparation to get get married Naomi-chan. We'll need a week atleast." Itachi tried to explain, patiently.

"We really don't need any preparation. There this marriage ceremony of Uzumaki clan that Jiraiya sensei taught me. The Yondaime and Kushina-san got married that way. I'll draw a seal on you, you'll draw a seal on me. Then we channel chakra on each others seal. And done. We're married. This'll be a secret one, of course. We can have a proper wedding later, when we achieve world peace. We can invite all other Kages." She said, showing him the seal.

Itachi studied the seal for a long time, with his sharingan. "All right." he said, finally.

"Great. Take off your shirt." She took out the ink and brush from her pouch. "We have to draw the seal on the sternum, the central tenkutsu." She explained at his raised eyebrow.

She tried not to be distracted while drawing the seal on him, but enjoyed the way his eyes darkened when he drew hers.

"Okay then, time to channel Chakra." What followed was not something she could ever express properly with words. It felt like Itachi's chakra was embracing her, mixing with her, loving her. Somehow it felt much more intimate than sex ever could be. She wondered if Itachi was feeling the same. From his expression, she concluded he was.

He opened his eyes to gaze at her lovingly, then captured her lips in a kiss. It was different than any one they had ever shared. There was such powerful intent and emotion behind it that she lost all trains of thought.

It suddenly hit her as she separated for air, "You devious bastard, you manipulated me."

His smirk definitely had a smug edge to it. "I don't know what you're talking about, okusan."

She shivered pleasantly at the address.

* * *

Shisui could freely admit that his team was a disaster. Despite their immense potential, all three of them were a big ball of issues. Sakura with her crush on Sasuke and a civilian mindset, Sasuke with his holier than thou attitude and Naruto being dumber than rocks, were no where near being ready for chunnin exams.

But ever since the mission to wave, he had noticed a change. Naruto, of all people, was studying fuinjutsu with utmost passion. Sakura was asking for Genjutsu training and being appointed to hospital as trainee medic nin. And Sasuke, had asked to be trained in the taijutsu style he saw Naomi use against the missing nin. Well, whatever his sister had said to the brats, Shisui wasn't complaining. But it looked like he had to change his mind about entering them into the chunnin exams.

To his surprise, the other two rookie teams were also entered. His team easily passed the first test, not with skill, but solely by Naruto's bullheadedness.

The second test was in the forest of death. Itachi was the proctor, which wasn't as much of a surprise as seeing him use a Genjutsu on a Suna team to open their scroll inside the forest and getting them disqualified.

"Classified." he had said, when Shisui questioned him about it.

All three of his genin passed the preliminaries, which was a pleasant surprise. Apparently not for his imouto as she had already arranged training for all three of them. Sasuke with Shisui, Sakura with Naomi and Naruto with Jiraiya, who was in the village for some reason.

The month passed quickly, and he was pleased to see Naruto kick the fate obsessed Hyugga in the face. ( Was he the one Naomi had saved from being kidnapped? He couldn't remember.)

Sakura performed admirably against Rock Lee, but ultimately admitted defeated. Since the kids monstrous speed, he couldn't blame her for it.

Sasuke was on the roll as he easily defeated the Nara heir and Aburame heir and went off to meet Naruto in the finals.

Shisui thought it to be the biggest surprise of the day when Naruto won! Using seals!

What the hell!

He was very proud of his students and all three of them had a good chance of getting promoted. As he stood up to go and congratulate them, the Sandaime decided to give him and rest of Konoha another surprise.

He was retiring and was being replaced by Itachi as the Godaime, effective immediately.

How had Shisui not known about this? This couldn't be a sudden decision. Itachi had to be shadowing the Sandaime for months. Suddenly all his shifts in the administrative buildings started to make sense.

After the announcement, he was accosted by his students. Naruto loudly complaining about not being selected Hokage instead of Itachi, Sasuke sulking because he didn't know that Itachi was getting the promotion and because of losing to Naruto, and Sakura demanding he treat them because they gave such a good performance.

He agreed to treat them and hours later he was returning home with full stomach and lighter wallet.

He wondered if Naomi knew about Itachi's promotion. He went to ask her, short-circuiting the chakra lock she had put up on her door and opened it.

And what he saw was a lot more of his sister and Itachi than he ever wanted to see.

"Ah! My poor virgin eyes." Thank God his Sharingan wasn't on.

They quickly covered up with a quilt. "Nii-chan, a lock on the door means something. And what the hell are you talking about having virgin eyes. There's no part of you that's virgin. You've been in a relationship with Anko, for duck's sake." Naomi shouted at him, flashing her Sharingan.

"Don't bring Anko into this. You're not old enough for ..."

"Shisui. Please, get out." Itachi interrupted him. Shisui stiffened. It was a direct order and Itachi was the Hokage. He couldn't disobey. Judging by the look in Itachi's eyes he knew that.

"Fuck you, Itachi." He said, walking out.

"No, thank you. I prefer your sister." came his reply before he could shut the door.

Shisui definitely did not need to hear that.

* * *

Sasuke entered Shisui's house with a scowl on his face. He was surprised to find that his normally cheerful sensei was sitting sulking at the table eating his breakfast.

" Is Nii-san here?" he asked.

"Naomi's room." Shisui grunted out. "Be papered to be traumatized at your own risk."

Sasuke tried to get the implications of that. "And you're here? You're fine with it?"

Sasuke knew first hand how protective Shisui was of his sister. There was no way Shisui was fine if what he implied was happening.

"Hokage-sama ordered me to get out." He bit out. "Why are you looking for him anyways?"

"Father asked me to get him to come home."

"I'm afraid I can't come home right now, Sasuke. I'm already running late. Tell father I'll come in the evening." Itachi appeared from the staircase with damp hair and a small smile on his face. Sasuke tried not to think about the reason behind the smile.

"Shisui. I'm sorry about last night. I didn't think about the implications until I had already said it. Please forgive me." Itachi bowed.

"Whatever. Atleast you used silencing seals." Shisui looked drastically less bitter.

"I'll see you later, Sasuke." Itachi left, ruffling his hair. Naomi was definitely having an influence on him.

"Ohaiyo Nii-chan, brat. It's such a nice morning, isn't it? " Speaking of the devil, Naomi entered the room, wearing a dopey smile.

"Imouto. You look happy." Shisui said.

"I'm very happy. Last night was definitely the best night of my life." Naomi answered shamelessly.

"I don't want to hear it. Neither does Sasuke. So, let's talk about something else." Shisui quickly cut her off.

Sasuke 'hn'ed.

Before anyone could say anything, a snake slithered from the window onto the table, left a letter in front of Naomi and poofed away.

Naomi calmly opened the letter, as Shisui asked, "Was that a snake?"

"Hm. Didn't you know Nii-chan, Orochimaru and me are besties now. We met on one of my missions two months ago and he took a liking to me. Now I'm helping him research about immortality jutsu and trying to convince him that Jiraiya sensei would not like him to be experimenting on babies."

"Isn't he a missing nin?" Sasuke questioned.

"Oh, don't be silly, he is the Otokage." Naomi replied.

"I see." Shisui nodded.

Sasuke decided to leave just then, lest he catch the craziness.


	8. 8

Sakura was very excited about her new job as a medic. Iryo nin jutsu came so easily to her as if it was made for her. Learning civilian medicine from Naomi sensei had made it even easier for her.

People supposedly found it quite hard, as only a rudimentary show of Mystical Palm Technique, along with some statergy and tactics, against her match with Rock Lee was enough to grant her a promotion. Whereas Lee wasn't promoted even after winning.

Her first day at the hospital went swimmingly. She was partnered with Kabuto, who she remembered from the chunnin exams. He taught her the ropes and after their shift even taught her some medical jutsu, which she got on her first try. Even Kabuto was impressed, though his smile was a bit fixed.

Sakura had finally found her calling. She wasn't meant to be combat Ninja like the rest of her team, but this was something she could be good at. She wouldn't be useless anymore.

It was while walking home that Sakura realised that she hadn't thought about Sasuke-kun the whole day. Maybe she was getting over her crush on him.

She was so lost in thought that she didn't even notice Ino until she ran into her.

"Hey, watch out Forehead. So lost in your thoughts about Sasuke-kun that you can't even see where you're going?" Ino taunted her.

"I'm not thinking about Sasuke-kun. I was thinking about my job at the hospital. Honestly, I don't think I'm even in love with Sasuke-kun anymore." Sakura replied.

"What do you mean? How can you even say that?" Ino was scandalized.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "He isn't that great when you see him following after his nii-san like a puppy. I was training with Naomi sensei last month. You should have seen how romantic Itachi-sama was with her. After seeing that, you kind of lose interest in Sasuke-kun's 'cool' personality."

"So you have a crush on Hokage-sama now?"

"No. That ship has sailed. He wouldn't even look at anyone except Naomi sensei. I'll just keep my eyes open for greener pastures. See you later, Ino-pig." Sakura walked away enjoying the stunned expression on Ino's face.

* * *

Kabuto was annoyed. The pink haired girl was able to learn those B rank jutsu on the first try.

He knew he would no longer be the best medic in Konoha if this continued. He wanted to snarl out in rage. It was so difficult to gain a sense of self identity as the best medic, and the pink menace had to ruin it all.

If only he could get rid of the seals of Danzo and Sasori, then he'd be able to go to Orochimaru-Sama.

"Hello, Kabuto-kun." greeted a disgustingly cheerful voice.

"Uchiha-San." he replied. He recognized her as the Hokage's fiancé whom he had sent to Orochimaru-sama's location on Danzo's orders. He wondered how she had escaped.

"I just received a request from our mutual friend to remove two seals from you."

"Mutual friend?" he asked.

"You know, long hair, yellow eyes, likes snakes."

Kabuto quickly grabbed her and took her to his work room. "Explain." he demanded, his heart pounding in his chest.

"He was my sensei's teammate. We started exchanging letters after our first meeting. I suggested him to use body made of Hashirama's cells for his immortality jutsu, instead of changing bodies every three years and behold, we're friends. Now where are those seals? "

Kabuto warily showed her the seals which she removed in minutes, to his astonishment.

"There you go. By the way I wished to thank you."

"For what Uchiha-San?"

"For giving me the fake mission to Orochimaru's location. If you hadn't I wouldn't have made friends with him, so thank you." She said with a sweet voice and a sharp smile.

He felt a shiver run down his spine.

It would probably be best to leave Konoha as soon as possible.


End file.
